Alliance Meeting 9/22/26

 Bearden UMC Community Garden - Alliance Meeting 9/22/26.

On Tuesday, BUMC hosted the Knox County Community Garden and Grower's Alliance monthly meeting with other coordinators for local community gardens. We were able tell them about establishing our garden and give them a tour of the garden. They were impressed. 

Below is our summary of establishment and production that we shared at the meeting. 

Bearden United Methodist Community Garden 

Summary of Establishment and Production

In January 2025, the BUMC Board of Trustees approved the use of an unused playground for creating a Community Garden. The playground is approximately 70’ x 40’s and the side yard was 27’ x 8’.  

Because BUMC used the playground for toddler’s Easter Egg Hunt, we could not start converting the playground into garden until after Easter. In April, I met with Rylan Thompson, our Knox County Extension agent over KCMG program. He suggested joining Alliance to be able to use my master garden hours on the Alliance project under KCMG. I became a master garden In May 2025. I started a blog about the Community Garden to share with church members and friends (https://bumccg.blogspot.com/)

In May, we started piling up magic mulch (cut up tires) and giving it away through Facebook Market Place. We did not get rid of most of the magic mulch until August. We collected cardboard from our members.

In mid-August, I met with Alliance to review my garden plan. Then we started laying down cardboard in the lawn half of playground to start the lasagna garden conversion. We still had to rake up magic mulch. We got two chip drops to use as pathways. We bought 2.5 yards of manure from Shangri La Horse Farm and 10 yards of compost from L&M landscape material. Alliance paid for our compost and manure. We added grass clippings and mulched leaves layers. We started planting cover crops, kale, collards, turnips, and mustard greens. We also planted some perennial flowers at the end of the rows. We started setting up 3 raised beds in the area where the magic mulch had been.

In November 2025, we harvested our first batch of greens (2 lbs) for our church’s Thanksgiving giveaway boxes. In December 2025, we harvested one pound of greens for our Christmas giveaway boxes.

In February 2026, we planted carrots and onions. In March 2026, we planted potatoes and started building compost bins.

In April, we harvested 23 pounds of greens and turnips. In May we harvested 100 pounds of turnips and greens. In June we harvested 100 pounds of potatoes, greens, green beans, peppers, tomatoes, garlic, carrots, cucumbers, and okra. In July, we harvested 128 pounds of potatoes, greens, green beans, peppers, tomatoes, garlic, carrots, cucumbers, tromboncino squash, and okra. In August we harvested 305 pounds of potatoes, greens, green beans, peppers, tomatoes, garlic, carrots, cucumbers, tromboncino squash, peppers, and okra. In August, we set up gleaning baskets on the community garden fence to give away fresh produce. So far in September, we have harvested over 135 pounds of potatoes, greens, green beans, peppers, tomatoes, garlic, carrots, cucumbers, tromboncino squash, peppers, basil, rosemary, and okra.

In August, we started building two more deep raised beds to mitigate the issue with too much zinc in the area where the magic mulch has been.  We covered them with netting and plan to plant winter vegetables.

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In Wednesday, we planted 3 six packs of lettuce, 1 six pack of kale, and 1 six pack of mustard green that were given to us from UT Gardens. 

We planted the lettuce in the side yard (bed #9). 

In the new raised beds we planted the kale and mustard greens. 

We planted these greens in the rain on Wednesday. On Thursday we recorded over 3 inches of rain from Wednesday. 

On Thursday, we harvested cucumbers, tromboncino squash, okra, tomatoes, pick n' pop peppers, california salsa peppers, and jalapeno peppers. 

I was able to talk with a family that stopped by to pick up produce. They were excited about the troboncino and jalapenos. 

On Monday 9/29, Alliance offered us some cute scare crows that they put in our garden. 

On Tuesday 9/29, we also harvested some cucumbers, tomatoes, okra, and tromboncino. 

Blessing, Leigh